Teaching in Thailand to Trekking in Nepal

Current Location: Kathmandu, Nepal

Chiang Mai, Thailand was my home for 6 weeks.

Ancient temple in Chiang Mai/Temple dog/looking down on Chiang Mai from Doi Suthep Temple

After crossing the border Laos border into Thailand by bicycle I hopped on a bus to Chiang Mai where I spent an intensive one month obtaining my TEFL certification through Siam Education. Although I have taught English and varying subjects in the past I never actually learned "how" to teach. The course opened up a door into teaching that I never knew was there. The 4 week course was broken into the two weeks of thai language/grammar/teaching methods and the two final weeks of actual teaching practices and lesson planning. I got to have the experience of tediously preparing lesson plans then teaching hour long lessons to Thai students from kindergarten 3 year olds up to college nursing students in their mid-20s. The Thai language lessons proved to be immensely rewarding as well. My interactions with locals changed drastically when I was able to communicate in Thai. Even though I only mastered basic conversation people responded with beaming faces and a willingness to help me continue learning the language. The Thai language lessons also served as a daily reminder how hard learning a new language can be. What we think as a few simple words or phrases to a new language learner start off as sounds then eventually take on meaning. It was a nice reminder when our class spent an entire 2 hours learning to say in Thai, "how are you?, I’m fine, or I'm not well" then when we ourselves teach language learners we must keep the lessons simple and concise. The Thai language also is a tonal language so we spent hours trying to learn the different tonal inflections. For example, "Suay" with a rising tone means beautiful in Thai and "Suay" in a low tone means bad luck. At first the tonal differential was almost unnoticeable but after practice we started to pick up on the differences, yet I am still leaps and bounds from mastering the tones.

Siam Education/My kindergarten class!/The whole class out to lunch:

The TEFL students, including myself, found the Thai students to have a strong eagerness to learn and kindness towards others that isn't often found in the West. This time in Thailand I really felt that I was able to connect with the culture and people. Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand is easily a city that I could live and work in. There are loads of ex-pats working, especially teaching in the city.

Graduation day!/Jane and I at Siam Education

I said goodbye to Thailand and headed to Kathmandu, Nepal 3 days ago to meet back up with Zach who just finished an amazing 1200 kms cycle across Tibet on some of the highest roads in the world. He is preparing a blog post about his own adventures, but I can promise the pictures and experiences are unbelievable. Other exciting news, our good friend Victor from Seattle just met us in Kathmandu! We are ecstatic to have him here with us and so far hes loving Kathmandu, although anxious to go trekking in the usual Victor fashion. We are leaving Monday morning (Oct 5th) from Kathmandu and taking a 10 hour bus ride to town of Besishahar, marking the start of the Annapurna circuit trek. We are giving ourselves 20 days of trekking to hike the Annapurna Circuit, the highest point is Thorung La pass at the height of 5416m or 17,769 feet. Having 20 days will give us plenty of extra times to acclimatize to the altitude throughout the trek and we are hiking the circuit backwards which apparently is better for acclimatization. The peak trekking time is now and there are many tea houses and accommodation along the way, although we are planning to camp mostly along the way.

Buildings lining a river in Kathmandu/Bulls!/Tibetan stupa within the city

After the trekking I will remain in Kathmandu to volunteer teach while Zach and Victor head to Thailand for a month. We are both unsure where we will meet up after they leave Nepal but we are still planning to work in Southern India come Dec/Jan. Since arriving in Kathmandu I have been busy meeting and spending time with the cycling group that went through Tibet with Zach and also running around buying last minute gear items for the trek. Our friends Katrina and Mike are leaving Nepal for Canada at the end of this week after more than a year cycle touring. Having cycled in 5 countries with Kat and Mike we are sad that they won't be continuing the journey with us.

We will be out of internet range during the trek for the next 4 weeks. Our entire trek is registered with the Nepal Government Trekkers Management System and the guesthouse contact in Kathmandu where our bikes and bags are stored is Hotel Holy Lodge. We love and miss you back home. Its hard to believe that we have almost been gone 1 year, time flys.

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Hello and Goodbye: China

Let me first say that I know how disappointed all you readers must be at the lack of pictures, I apologize but in my haste I left the USB reader with E. thinking it wouldn't be a problem to find a computer with a card reader... and oh how I was wrong!

 

The more important thing is that I made it to China and I only had to leave two wrenches behind at airport security! The flight was easy, fitting my full size bike into a bike box made for a 20" bike was much more difficult. I left Laos rainy and fitful as it seems that the wet season had finally begun.

 

The first leg of my multi-stop flight took me to Bangkok for an 11 hour layover. Not a bad airport to spend a night in but I have to say that the air conditioning really starts pumping around 3am and unless you're prepared it can be a cool night. The international wing is alive into the wee hours of the morning with all the incoming and outgoing flights which means that everything from the snack bars to the high-end duty free jewelry shops was still open for business well past my ability to stay awake. I wandered the corridors for a few hours wearing myself out and finally settled down on one of a very few padded couches (in concourse E I believe) for some sleep.

 

My flight to Chengdu left the next morning on time and as soon as we took off the cabin crew started in with their excellent service, thank you Bangkok Airways! I had a full meal, two coffees, a snack, and watched a ridiculous movie in the 5 hours it took me to arrive. When I got the announcement about our imminent descent I craned my neck from my aisle seat toward the window and all I could see was a thick cloud cover. I kept my eye on the window as we continued down and still a milky white persisted outside. Then I noticed the haze was turning ever browner and I started to make out the shape of buildings, roads, cars, all things city like. We were in fact almost to the touchdown part of the flight and I would guess I could see about 10 blocks out past the airport before the smog had obscured absolutely everything else. Hmmm. I sped through the airport, both the security checkpoint and the immigration desk were a breeze and they didn't even x-ray my clumsily packaged bike box.

 

The hostel I booked with had a van waiting for me when I arrived, which made the hour trip into the heart of the city that much less of a hassle. On arriving Kat and Mike were already checked in; it was great to reconnect with them after our abrupt split up in Vietnam. I also got to meet Bob, a true adventurer who having arrived in Chengdu with a set of panniers, some camping gear, and a dream to cycle in Tibet, had happened upon Kat and Mike and decided to join up with our group. Mike and Kat had helped him sort out the bike question through a great local mechanic, tourer, visionary, and all around great guy Hans who built up a nice BMC Virus for him. We spent a few days running around Chengdu which is an incredibly easy to navigate and interesting city with every modern amenity any westerner could ever want. Hans took us on a 90km round trip ride out past the city center and up a nice twisty pass where we got to enjoy softball sized local peaches and a great view (with a bit less smog). When we got back to his shop Hans told us that the 45kms we'd cycled away from Chengdu still had us inside the city limits! Whoa!

 

As the days passed more of the group arrived. Nathan, who'd been cycling in China already (and who'd already made a bid for Lhasa without a permit and had been turned back just weeks before) arrived next and added Kiwi fuel to the fire of stories and experiences from the road that kept us all up late laughing over beers. After Nathan came Adrian, an Ozzy, who'd also been cycling in China already. Marnus arrived from South Africa after many hours in transit with two days to spare and a great classic steel bike and minimalist gear. Billy arrived last with the longest travel itinerary having flown from South America to Las Vegas with one day to sort out his gear (and all Kat's food requests) before taking a multi-leg flight from Las Vegas to Chengdu! Billy also kindly brought along my tent and a brand spanking new Kelty sleeping bag of mine that my mom had graciously gathered and shipped off to Las Vegas a few days before. With everyone gathered, bikes tuned up, snacks galore, and adventure in the air we set off for the train to Lhasa; which is where things got really interesting.

 

Our tour organizer from Dreams Travel had told us that our bikes would cost us excess baggage fees but would be loaded onto the luggage car of the train... well turns out there is no and has never been any luggage car for this train. We arrived at the station 2 hours early only to discover that our bikes would have to go on another cargo train for god knows how much, and would arrive 5 days later! Never mind though, we went and got in the Lhasa train line with all our stuff to see what they'd do with us. First they made us take off all our bags and the front wheels before we could get in the terminal. We hobbled two at a time, one with bags and one with a bike for 8 rounds of this to get all our stuff inside the train building... saying nothing of getting checked in for our own train this just got us to the next line! After a lot of negotiation they took our tickets, passports, and permits and told us to wait until all the other passengers had loaded and then to load our stuff in. We waited and waited while hundreds of people streamed past us bound for our train. Finally we got the signal to start bringing stuff through - again in waves we moved our bags and then gear to a waiting room. Once in the waiting room we moved the same gear in waves again to the train platform all the while the train is full and we're the last ones to board. We got all the baggage in and then started jamming the bikes into the vestibules where the control panels and toilets sat at the junction of each car. The train people were horrified but we just kept bringing them in until every one was loaded haphazardly and the train started moving! The officials hounded us and we moved the bikes about 6 times before they were satisfied but we did it, we'd gotten all our stuff and our people on the train! The train staff really didn't know what to make of us but they couldn't kick us off so we just stood our ground, bungeed our bikes together and that was that! Wheels and panniers lay everywhere around our bunks and it was a bit of a pain to have to sleep with all my luggage at my feet, making my bed fit for someone maybe 3 foot 5.

 

Never the less, we were off and headed for Tibet!

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What do you think of the changes?

We slaved away to bring you the new and improved eco-blog colors. Tell us what you think.

• Is it easier to read?
• Is it better for those of you printing off the blog?
• Do you dig the new colors?
• Does our blog now better aid in your eco-conscious lifestyle?
• Are you ready for us to stop asking questions?

Leave us feedback in the comments section. PLEASE

With sweet adoration,

Zachary and Elise

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Party Success!

We threw a going away party for ourselves this past weekend and it was a hit! We had 22 pumpkins for carving, 10 pizzas (take and bake), a couple bottles of liquor, lots of good beer, a hot tub, a free pile, music, games, one happy dog, and a ton of friends and family.

K + E (two of our incredibly loyal friends) helped us set up, brought chairs, a table, carving knives, and their unending good cheer to help us out Saturday morning. They partied like rock stars into the late evening and then came back bright and early to help clean up Sunday morning. Oh yeah and don't let us forget to mention that they also COOKED US BREAKFAST Sunday morning!!! Who are these wonderful people and where have they been all our lives?! Seriously though, we couldn't have done it without their support... and furniture.

Z's mom was also integral to the party planning, allowing us to move BACK in some of the furniture that had just recently migrated to her new condo, as well as bringing wine, candy, entertaining guests that we found ourselves unable to spend as much time with as we would have liked, and executing a quick and tidy cleanup of the single broken wine glass of the night! Thanks Mom!

We collected as many email and physical addresses as we could wrangle but if you're reading this and you either

a.) couldn't make it
- or -
b.) squirmed away before we could squeeze you for your personal info

leave us a comment and we'll make sure and get it from you. Don't leave your phone number or address in any comments here though... we don't want you to end up with some weirdo's (that aren't us) showing up at your doorstep or more junkmail filling up your inbox which could totally happen as this is a public blog and anyone can see your comments!

Thanks to everyone who attended. We both appreciated seeing everyone and we both found that we couldn't spend nearly enough one-on-one time with the people who were there. Everyone that attended means so much to the collective us and to each of us individually. We're sad to be leaving you all but your warm send off makes it easier knowing precisely the people we will miss the most are supporting us in our endeavor and are excited for our adventures.

Those of you who are planning on traveling with us - we can't wait!

Those of you who are even considering traveling with us - get off the fence and just do it!

Those of you who are bound to your jobs, families, lives, or who just don't want to go any of the places we're going - we'll look forward to bombarding you with pictures and stories on our return and wish you all the best in the interim!

We love you all!

Z+E

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on misty mountain

fig and Z waiting for the clouds to part so we could enjoy the view from the saddle on the way up to Mount Pugh.

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Handsome and rugged

Victor and Eli are offically responsible for all of my physical training to prepare for this upcoming trip. Here they are taking me up mount pugh on stefans birthday weekend. We hiked throught the clouds all day lending to a strange sense of encapsulation and a disconnect with our realized altitude. Everything felt close and quiet, very dream-like. Nice to have shared the experience with two incredible guys.

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And now for some relieving news: we have gone and actually purchased the tickets for the first two legs of our trip!

And now for some relieving news: we have gone and actually purchased
the tickets for the first two legs of our trip!

on our fourth and longest trip to see our travel agent we finally bit
the proverbial bullet and bought tickets for the New Zealand and
Australia portions of our trip. We'll be heading out november 16th and
arriving the 18th in Auckland. three weeks in New Zealand, leaving
from Christchurch. the day after we arrive in Sydney both our mothers
arrive and stay with us for just a bit under 3 weeks.

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its hard to say that change has descended ON us when we create all the chaos, but it certainly feels that way.

its been over a month since I
completed the Seattle Tilth program and longer since I've update the
blog about traveling. a LOT has changed.
for starters:
we're suprisingly ahead of schedule with travel savings.
we are almost ready to move out to west Seattle.
We placed Otis and got him back.
Z. left his job of seven years and started a new job working in
lanscaping.
E. is working 40+ hours of overtime a week with the parks dept.
we've sold the majority of the stuff we've acquired over the past four
years including BIKES.
And last but not least we've pushed the trip back (again) to mid
november.

it scarcely feels like there's time to breathe let alone maintain
meaningful relationships with each other or our friends. at the same
time it feels increasingly important to keep up on those closest
friendships we both have. striking that balance has never been my
strong suit but I am trying.

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Indian Visas and Craigslist finds

That's right... we're now officially able to enter, and re-enter India for the next 10 years. The visa (good through 2018) was a bit more expensive than the 6 month tourist visa we both had the first time we went but we'll undoubtedly make use of these visas over the coming years. We'll still have to leave after 180 days but we'll be able to re-enter the country after "stepping out" for a day or two. We're looking to do our stepping out somewhere in the North, perhaps on a trek out of Darjeeling.

More packing and selling is making our living room look like the basement regurgitated years worth of pack-ratted items up the stairway and onto the dining room table. We've started to pack up the essentials boxes. A. has two full Roughneck Rubbermaid bins already, Z. only has 1/2 of one, but Z. has also got a bike shop chock full of stuff and a wood shop full of woodish things that have been collecting dust for some time now - both of these areas are slated to be cleaned out no later than June 1st - OUCH...

We've been organizing using MS OneNote, making lists, lists of lists that need to be made, trip outlines, notes about travel restrictions, keeping track of Craigslist ads and Items sold or donated, things we need, etc. etc. OneNote is keeping this all organized into pages and subpages with fabulous Tags that are sortable and indexed, while all the text we enter is highly searchable, making a satisfying little package of trip planning glory right here on the laptop... If only it were made by Google! :end unintentional plug for software giants:

We also picked up a great and much needed piece of equipment from an awesome Craigslister (who actually delivered said item to us on a Friday night!!) The MSR Dragonfly

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